Many of you have been wondering where I've been for the past nine months. I'm here today to tell you the whole truth.

Before I do, I'd like to take you on a stroll down memory lane via your own comments:

"i'm sure your book deal after all this will turn into a hefty profit."- aerospace - 2005-02-05

"Caster, I don't care how this ends up, you have to at least write a book about your life, I think."- seinjunkie - 2004-07-05

"You know Ray, odds are that your weird life reports is going to grow so popular with time that you'll be asked to make a book out of it. And you're not even a call girl/expensive prostitute!"- hawk_one - 2004-09-25

"Will you PLEASE make a movie about your life, or at least a book, or something? Honestly... You need to share these kinds of things with the WORLD!!!!"- halfwayhappy - 2005-02-01

You wanted me to write a book, and the time for that book has come. But before I get to that, there's one more thing you should know about me.

I am not Ray Caster.

There is no Ray Caster.

You have all partaken in an experiment which, like the holographic Doctor on Caster's beloved Voyager, expanded far beyond its original parameters. The epic saga that unfolded in this journal was actually a story written by Marcus Alexander Hart, aka marcus132. I apologize for the trickery. I never meant to hurt anybody with this hoax, and I sincerely hope that I haven't.

With the experiment completed, I've turned Ray Caster's LiveJournal into a book entitled Caster's Blog: A Geek Love Story.

As the people who followed and interacted with this odyssey in real time, I feel I owe Ray Caster's followers a forum in which to voice your reactions to the revelation of his true nature. This post is that forum. Use the comments to tell the world how you feel in your own uncensored words.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for believing. I hope you all had as much fun during your year with Ray Caster as I did.

I guess for the sake of the FAQ and the fact that I'm one of those friends that was "lucky" enough to be included in the book, I should go ahead and post my thoughts on the matter.

Betrayal. Pain. Anger.

eh. Not so much. Maybe a little betrayal, with a side of annoyance, but other then that...

I had a bit of a struggle to figure out just how I felt. On one hand, I think it was a brilliant bit of work. On the other, I felt like a friend had died when I found out Ray wasn't real.

Many of us that have been on the web for a long time learn to form friendships with virtual people in much the same way we do in real life. Hell, some of us are better at the virtual friends. Through watching and conversing with each other about our lives, we actually seem to get to know each other better then the real life friends. Such was the case with several of us and Ray. Of course, it was all one sided and I overstate somewhat for a lack of sufficent words to convey the degree of which I felt a friendship with Ray. I'd have to say it was somewhat above "random guy on the web" and somewhere below "Call me, buddy!".

Despite my "calling it out", I had absolutely no idea. About once a month since his last post, I'd wonder whatever happened to Caster and wish him well... about as close to "keeping someone in your prayers" as a guy who doesn't yet believe in prayer can get. I told more than a few people at work and elsewhere his story because it was entertaining and exciting. Knowing it's all a hoax doesn't really change my take on his story, it just makes me kind of disappointed that there's no future to it. At least now I know the conclusion.

Caster really made me smile, I'll just keep on thinking of him as his own person, thankyouverymuch. I can't wait to buy the book so I can tell people I knew him before he got famous... yanno, and before he got non-existant.

The poor girl who represented HR Julie was not aware of Ray Caster, his journal, or her appearance in it. That's why the photos were posted "friends only" and then deleted right after everybody got a chance to see them. I didn't want people egging her in the street later.

I already laid out my feelings about this (slightly annoyed) to Marcus, so I'll just say this: If Marcus hadn't asked me for permission to use me in the book - especially after that ending post "a journey of 100 miles" where I made a pretty big part of the post - THEN I would have been really pissed off! :p

My thoughts in random order

1. Congratulations for pulling it off :)2. So I guess you made up all of those awful HR poems?3. Now I wish I had commented more so I could have been in the book =p4. Who's picture is that on misinformer.com?5. I read this the day you posted it, but was too tired to comment, and other thoughts came to mind when I first read it, but I cannot remember them.6. I guess I was a tiny bit skeptical in the end, but I guess I like to believe that such things can be true :)

Anyway, it was a bit of a shock finding out, but I think it's pretty awesome that you managed to keep up with it for so long. And...

When did you start planning all of it? The PS3 article was in early 2001, and the first LJ entry was in early 2004...Anyway :)

I realize i'm being redundant.

I'm loathe to believe that Ray doesn't actually exist. I don't want to believe it. On the other hand...

I dunno how I feel. Maybe a little betrayed, and disappointed. Holdy McGirlTouch is the only geek that I ever knew who got the girl he wanted first. Sorta like finding out that the bad guys do win sometimes.

Felt good reading it though. Sad to see it end, like turning off a good video game for the last time, having beaten it, and saying goodbye to the characters after being with them for many hours of your life. Which is, in turn, like saying goodbye to a friend.

So, thanks, Marcus, for all the entertainment. Had I known it was you, I might have tried to befriend you. So long, Ray. Have fun with your wife, on your island paradise.

Re: I realize i'm being redundant.

With the exception of Timb, all of the photos on the misinformants page were taken somewhat randomly out of high school yearbooks. None of the pictures are really us, but Caster goes a step farther by not being real himself.

Since this is linked to from the FAQ, I thought I should state my thoughts here. First of all, I totally called this (not actually, but I could have)! Secondly, I'm happy to have been hoaxed by such and engaging storyline. It's like I've helped make history, in a small way, by being duped into participation. Looking backwardly, I'm a little embarrassed about things I've written and my poor grammar. But, at least I'm not Mike Tyson. I guess it's not that bad.

Wow....

I really am at a loss for words...I shared some things with "Caster" that I wouldn't have shared with just anybody, so the feeling of betrayal is there to an extent. Hell, he even posted in my blog as I'm sure he did in many others. I guess it added to the allusion of it all. However, I must admire it for the piece of work that it is. I've met some very interesting people through Ray's journal that I probably would not have met otherwise and for that I say thank you. Marcus, thank you for the great times.